Against Celsus 4.94

Origen · Against Celsus · ca. 248 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: If birds are divine because they give omens, so must be the maidservant in Homer whose words became an omen, and even anyone who sneezes, since sneezes too were taken as omens.

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Greek text · Koetschau 1:367–368

Εἴπερ δὲ θεία ἐστὶν ἡ τῶν ὀρνίθων ψυχὴ διὰ τὸ διʼ αὐτῶν προλέγεσθαι τὰ μέλλοντα, πῶς οὐχὶ μᾶλλον. ὅπου κληδόνες ἀπὸ ἀνθρώπων λαμβάνονται, θείαν εἶναι φήσομεν τὴν ψυχὴν ἐκείνων, διʼ ὧν αἱ κληδόνες ἀκούονται; θεία οὖν τις ἦν κατὰ τοὺς τοιούσδε ἡ παρὰ τῷ Ὁμήρῳ „ἀλετρὶς.“ περὶ τῶν μνηστήρων εἰποῦσα· ὕστατα καὶ πύματα νῦν ἐνθάδε δειπνήσειαν. κἀκείνη μὲν θεία ἦν· ὁ δὲ τηλικοῦτος Ὀδυσσεὺς, ὁ τῆς Ὁμηρικῆς Ἀθηνᾶς φίλος. οὐκ ἦν θεῖος ἀλλὰ συνεὶς τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς θείας ἀλετρίδος εἰρημένων κληδόνων ἔχαιρεν, ὡς ὁ ποιητής φησι· χαῖρε δὲ κλεηδόνι δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς. ἤδη δὲ ὅρα, εἴπερ οἱ ὄρνιθες θείαν ἔχουσι ψυχὴν καὶ αἰσθάνονται τοῦ θεοῦ ἢ, ὡς ὁ Κέλσος ὀνομάζει. τῶν θεῶν· δηλονότι καὶ ἡμεῖς πταρνύμενοι οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἀπό τινος ἐν ἡμῖν οὔσης θειότητος καὶ μαντικῆς περὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἡμῶν πταρνύμεθα. καὶ γὰρ τοῦτο μαρτυρεῖται ὑπὸ πολλῶν· διὸ καὶ ὁ ποιητὴς λέγει τό· ὁ δʼ ἐπέπταρεν εὐχομένοιο. διὸ καὶ ἡ Πηνελόπη φησίν· οὐχ ὁράᾳς. ὅ μοι υἱὸς ἐπέπταρε σοῖσιν ἔπεσσι;

English · Claude translation

If the soul of birds is divine because the future is foretold through them, why should we not say rather, where omens are taken from human beings, that the soul of those through whom the omens are heard is divine? On this view, then, the "grinding woman" in Homer was divine, who said of the suitors: "May they now dine here for the last and final time." And she was divine, while great Odysseus, the friend of Homer's Athena, was not divine, but understanding the omens spoken by the divine grinding woman he rejoiced, as the poet says: "And noble Odysseus rejoiced at the omen." Now see: if birds have a divine soul and perceive God, or, as Celsus calls them, the gods, clearly we human beings too, when we sneeze, sneeze from some divinity in us and a prophetic power in our soul. For this too is attested by many; which is why the poet says: "and he sneezed as he prayed." Which is why Penelope too says: "Do you not see that my son sneezed at your words?"

About this passage

Source

Koetschau 1:367–368 · Paul Koetschau, ed., Origenes Werke 1–2: Gegen Celsus, GCS 2–3 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1899) · Greek text: P. Koetschau, Origenes Werke 1–2 (GCS 2–3, 1899), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Koetschau, GCS 2–3. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Koetschau, GCS 2–3; made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Extrabiblical texts

Homer, Od. 20.116–120 (Homer, Odyssey) · quotation, high confidence
Homer, Od. 17.545 (Homer, Odyssey) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

The quotations are Homer, Odyssey 20.116–119 (the grinding woman), 20.120, and 17.545 (Penelope; Homer reads πᾶσιν ἔπεσσι, "at all your words"). The source of "and he sneezed as he prayed" is uncertain.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (stray punctuation in the digital text; wrong breathing in the digital text): Εἵπερ δὲ → Εἴπερ δὲ; οὐκ ἦν· θεῖος → οὐκ ἦν θεῖος.

Cite this passage

Origen, Cels. 4.94 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/4/94/).

Plain text

Origen, Cels. 4.94 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/4/94/).

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